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"Sarah and Caitlyn have been without their mother. They haven't been treated well by many people but apart from that they still don't know – we still don't know - what happened to Corryn and that is a terrible tragedy ," Mr Rayney said.

"Despite the best funded investigation, despite unlimited resources at the disposal of those people investigating, this is still unsolved.

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"This is an extremely hard thing for my family to accept."

Today members of the public packed the court room that had been home to the long-running trial to see the former state prosecutor's fate unfold firsthand. The media scrum outside the court was mayhem.

Lloyd Rayney was flocked by the media on Thursday while prosecutor John Agius left the court without commenting.

After a suspense-filled 45-minute summary of the case, Supreme Court Justice Brian Martin appeared to be holding back tears as he thanked Mrs Rayney's father Ernest Da Silva for his "impeccable" and dignified conduct throughout the trial.

In the same breath Mr Martin uttered his verdict: not guilty of murder and not guilty to manslaughter.

The prosecution case had centred on motive, laying bare the struggles of the Rayneys' crumbling marriage, with affairs on both sides, gambling addiction and heated threats.

Justice Martin said although the court had heard evidence of "bad character" on the part of Mr Rayney - including lying under oath - these elements did not prove he had committed a murder.

"The case for the state is beset by improbabilities and uncertainties," Justice Martin said.

"Crucial evidence is lacking and the absence of evidence tells strongly against the state."

The state had failed to fill evidentiary gaps of their circumstantial case with anything more than "speculation", he said.

Mrs Rayney was last seen alive leaving her weekly bootscooting class in Bentley on August 7, 2007 and very little is known about what unfolded in the final hours of her life.

A week after her disappearance, Mrs Rayney's body was found buried, head-first in a shallow bush grave in Kings Park – near Perth's CBD.

A dinner party place tag with Lloyd Rayney's name on it was found metres from the grave site.

In December 2010 Mr Rayney was formally charged with his wife's murder after a dramatic public arrest in the Perth CBD.

Six months later he pleaded not guilty to both a wilful murder charge and the alternative charge of unlawful killing.

Until today's verdict, he had been on bail since December 23, 2010, caring for his two teenage daughters.

Police inquiries targeted Mr Rayney almost immediately, according to his lawyers who branded the investigation "biased" and narrow-minded.

In his judgement Mr Martin said although there were instances of "unacceptable conduct" by some investigators - ranging from "inappropriate to reprehensible" - he had not found evidence that "lines of inquiry were not properly investigated".

The prosecution team, led by John Agius QC, failed in its bid to prove Mr Rayney committed "the perfect crime".

The prosecution case alleged Mr Rayney murdered his wife out the front of their Como home and hid the body, before putting his eldest daughter to bed.

Although Justice Martin found Mr Rayney was innocent of the crime, he did conclude Mrs Rayney returned home after bootscooting that night and was attacked near her front yard.

She had then been driven to Kings Park, where she had either been smothered before being buried or "buried alive" late on the night of her disappearance or early the next morning.

Justice Martin said the evidence did not support that Mr Rayney, a "soft" man weighing 67 kilograms at the time of his wife's death and suffering from a back injury, could have buried his wife and returned home in time to wake their daughters up and appear in court the next morning as if nothing had happened.

"If, throughout the night of 7 August 2007, the accused had engaged in the dreadful and exhausting course of behaviour which the state attributes to him, it is highly improbably that he would not have exhibited some sign, however slight, of the effects of the night's arduous and traumatic events," Justice Martin said.

A defamation case against the state over comments made by the police officer who led the Rayney investigation in 2007 - which branded Mr Rayney the "prime and only suspect" - was put on hold pending the outcome of the trial.

The comments rendered Mr Rayney the subject of "public hate" and saw him "shunned by right thinking members of the community," according to a statement of claim launched by his lawyers in 2008.

The state has 21 days to appeal Justice Martin's decision.

Speaking for Mrs Rayney's family her sister Sharon Coutinho thanked prosecutors and police for their efforts.

"Our quest for seeking justice for Corryn will continue," she said.

On the issue of the dinner place tag found bearing Mr Rayney's name on August 11, 2007 – before the discovery of her body – Justice Martin said although this piece of evidence was capable of supporting the case that Mr Rayney had buried his wife, it did not prove guilt.

"Sometimes an apparently incriminating piece of evidence has an innocent explanation that is not obvious; sometimes an apparently implausible explanation is true," Justice Martin said.

"Human affairs are not like jigsaws cut to size and shape.

"Strange events happen for odd reasons.

"Mysteries emanating from evidence given in criminal cases remain unsolved."

Mr Rayney has consistently denied any knowledge of what happened to his wife in her final hours.

Although the verdict has now been handed down, the details of what happened to Mrs Rayney in the hours after she left that bootscooting class five years ago remain a mystery.

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, WA Police said they were considering Justice Martin's reasons for his decision in the Rayney case.

WA Police will not make further comment until the appeal period of 21 days has elapsed and are also assessing Justice Martin's stated views "regarding the conduct of some officers".